Satellites launched in 2000
Note: Data complete to 15 December. * including ISS.
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OARETH BURGESS 01"
The major theme of this year for commercial
launch providers is likely to be increasing the
payload capability of their vehicles to keep pace
with the growing size of geosynchronous-orbit
(GEO) communications satellites. Arianespace
currently holds the high ground, its Ariane 5
having lifted a record 6.3t payload to GTO in
November. But other launch providers are
snapping at the European company's heels.
Russia plans to launch the first uprated
Proton/Breeze M early in the new year. This
vehicle can plade payloads up to 5.5t in GTO,
and will be the largest booster marketed by
International Launch Services (ILS) until the
5-8t Atlas V family enters service. Meanwhile,
the 4.5t-payload Atlas IIIB, an uprated version
of ILS's current Russian-engined Atlas IHA, will
make its maiden flight this year.
Pressure will come on Arianespace when
Boeing launches its first Delta IV late this year.
The initial "Medium +" vehicle has a GTO pay-
load exceeding 5.8t, but within two years the
Delta IV family will include a "Heavy" vehicle
capable of lifting more than 13t to GTO.
Europe's response is a programme to enhance
H.UL'JatWMIUIIJW
Vehicle
Ariane 5
Delta IV Medium+4.2
Proton M/Breeze
Zenit 3SL
LM3B
Proton DM
Ariane 44L
Atlas IIIB
Ariane 44LP
Atlas IIIA
H2A202
Delta III
Atlas HAS
Ariane 42L
Ariane 44P
LM2E/EPKM
LM2E/Star 63F
Atlas HA
Ariane 42P
LM3A
GSLV
Delta II
LM3
l£IMtMUfcHM!M:Mi
Operator
Arianespace
Boeing
ILS
Sea Launch
CGWIC
ILS
Arianespace
ILS
Arianespace
ILS
RSC
Boeing
ILS
Arianespace
Arianespace
CGWIC
CGWIC
ILS
Arianespace
CGWIC
ISR0
Boeing
CGWIC
Notes: Complete to 15 December 2000. CGWIC -
International Launch Services. LM - Long March.
Region
Europe
USA
USA/Russia
USA/International
China
USA/Russia
Europe
USA/Russia
Europe
USA/Russia
Japan
USA
USA/Russia
Europe
Europe
China
China
USA/Russia
Europe
China
India
USA
China
GTO (kg)
6,000
5,845
5,500
5,250
5,000
4,930
4,900
4,500
4,170
4,060
4,000
3,810
3,730
3,450
3,380
3,500
3,140
3,045
2,920
2,500
2,500
2,000
1,450
Commercial launches
3
1st launch 2001
1st launch 2001
2 (and 1 failure)
0
8
1
1st launch 2001
3
1
1st launch 2001
1 (Demo)
3 Retires 2001
3
1
0
0
4 Retires 2001
0
0
1st launch 2001
0
0
China Great Wall Industry Corporation. GSVL - Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle. ILS -
RSC - Japanese Rocket Systems Corporation. ISR0 • Indian Space Research Organisation.
the Ariane 5's performance, beginning with an
improved upper stage which is scheduled to
enter service late this year and which will boost
GTO payload to as much as 8t.
Behind the push for higher payloads is the
increasing size of GEO satellites. The current
record was set in October, when Boeing-led Sea
Launch placed the United Arab Emirates'
Thuraya mobile communications satellite into
GTO>. Built by Hughes (now Boeing), the 5. It
Thuraya is the heaviest commercial spacecraft
launched to date — but mere are bigger birds
waiting in the wings: Alcatel's 6t Spacebus 4000
and the 7.5t Space Systems/Loral 20:20.
Driving the demand for bigger satellites is the
move into broadband communications pay-
loads to serve the rapidly growing Internet mar
ket. Intelsat, to be privatised this year, plans to
place a contract for a $1.5 billion next-genera
tion broadband satellite system by mid-2001.
Such orders are in the pipeline from other major
satellite operators.
Despite the internet explosion, overall sales
of GEO satellites are expected to remain flat for
the next few years. The low earth orbit (LEO)
market, meanwhile, is unlikely to recover from
Iridium's bankruptcy for some time. Iridium
will return to full operation this year, under its
new owners, but the market malaise lingers on
and a question mark still hangs over the
financial viability of GlobalStar.
A knock-on effect of Iridium's financial col
lapse in 1999 is that the maiden flights of pri
vately developed low-cost launch vehicles that
had been planned for this year will no longer
take place. Beal Aerospace ceased operations
last year and Kistler Aerospace has yet to raise
the funds to complete its K-l booster. This
leaves the field clear for the established players.
Arianespace and ILS each expect to launch
about one commercial payload a month in 2 001.
Boeing's Delta II, meanwhile, will be kept busy
flying spacecraft for the US Government,
including the "commercial" launch of an exper
imental lightweight GEO satellite for the
National Reconnaissance Office. Delta lis will
launch several US Air Force global positioning
system satellites plus a number of payloads for
NASA — including the 2001 Mars Odyssey.
Named for science fiction author Arthur C
Clarke, co-creator of 2007: A Space Odyssey,
Mars Odyssey will be launched in April to begin
a long-term exploration programme. The
spacecraft will join the successful Mars Global
Surveyor in orbit around the 'red planet' in
October and study potential landing sites for
future robotic missions scheduled to start in
2003. After the failures of the Mars Climate
Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander in 1999, NASA
needs a success if its programme is to continue.
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 January 2001